Paopu
by Bracken-Fae
Summary: One-shot YuRiku, I'm not entirely sure how this came about... but yes.. read! I have given up on summaries if you haven't guessed from the patheticness of this. Hope you like!


**Paopu. **

He gazed around him at his surroundings, the weird sensation dying inside him, only to be rekindled when he looked at her smiling face. Who had ever thought it would happen like this? Him, unable to forget his past darkness, her, unable to forget about her stoic ex-boyfriend.

It didn't seem real at all.

It wasn't real.

It couldn't be.

The pair had met up whilst in Hollow Bastion, Yuffie had returned to her home world due to a hoarse break up with her long-term partner, Leon. She and Leon, Aerith and Cloud had all planned to stay put in Traverse Town, their second and rather dearer home. While Hollow Bastion held equal amounts of good memories to Traverse Town, the ones attached to Hollow Bastion were of their parents and lives before the Heartless - something not all of them wished to be reminded of. But Yuffie was tired of being treated like she was the child of a family to which she did not actually belong; it wasn't even a family anyway. She wanted independence, and the only other place she knew was Hollow Bastion. After bribing Cid to take her there one evening not three days after the bad break up of herself and Leon, she packed up all her things and begged for him to keep quiet about it. They set off just after the three who had been out to dinner arrived back at the Hotel. She had loaded her things into the gummi ship which would be her vessel, said a heartfelt goodnight to her beloved friends and pretended to go to bed, looking around with tears shimmering in her eyes, breathing in the scent of her old room one last time before slipping quietly out the window.

Riku had returned to Hollow Bastion because he felt there was no way his friendship with Sora and Kairi could return to the way it was before it all had happened, especially now that Sora and Kairi were engaged. Yes, it seemed odd to hear but Yuffie had informed him that she had been invited to their wedding, Sora and Kairi had delivered the good news themselves one evening, and Kairi spent most of it girl talking to Aerith and Yuffie about the night Sora had proposed. It would be a year until it was actually legal for the two to be married, but Sora had been enlightened, seen that every second wasted is like a grain of sand through your fingertips, never to be retrieved. And he never wanted to feel like he would never be able to tell Kairi that he loved her again. Riku understood the point but felt as if he would be the spare wheel of the relationship triangle. Hollow Bastion was the place where he had sold his soul, given in to darkness, yet, somehow, he just couldn't let it go. He figured that Hollow Bastion being in the ruin he had left it in, no one would want to return to the old and forbiddingly beautiful castle, so he could live the rest of his life on his own. He had never even returned to Destiny Islands. Not until now.

* * *

Shuddering as he remembered turning up at Rising Falls and feeling completely overwhelmed at the climb he would have to endure to manage to finally make it to the castle, he felt Yuffie's small body shudder too. She was probably remembering, as she said: 'watching this dark speck move towards the castle, and thinking that it just might be Squ-Leon coming back to rescue me, feeling completely giddy with that thought but then frightened at the same time of his anger at the fact that I did a runner. The anger that would be aimed at a child.'

He remembered arriving at the lift which promptly appeared in front of him and being beset by fear as he stepped out onto the platform, trying to keep his balance so he didn't fall. His phobia of heights had been conquered by inhabiting this place for a while, but that straight drop into nothingness reminded him too much of Ansem. Shaking his head, he remembered looking out and seeing how close he had come to the castle. Jumping off the lift and onto the pale stone beneath him, he walked into the Entrance Hall not hearing the sounds of a girl training below in the Waterway, waiting for her ex-lover to return to her. The stars were coming out; the dark sky mirrored his pensive state. He felt dizzy and sick and in love and alive all at the same time, so much so that it was heaven to be so close to Yuffie, who seemed to be so breezy – it was almost as if she were his crutches, his support.

Riku managed to spend at least a week in the old castle without Yuffie noticing his presence, although she did notice some things were missing or had appeared, and vice versa. When they finally did meet one night, it was in the library. Neither of them could sleep, each haunted by their past experiences in the place. Yuffie had, quite obviously, taken up her old bedroom from when she was just a child, and though she had rearranged the furniture and replaced some of it so that she could fit on it (the bed was five inches too short for her) the décor remained the same, juvenile, transporting her back all those years to her happier days. Riku had taken up the room that Maleficent had assigned him when he had been here last. It was still cold and dark and pretty much uninhabitable, but the fact that Riku sort of liked the room in an odd way made it better. Only slightly though - the pain of knowing he'd probably never see anyone else again, whilst very melodramatic, was smarting worse than that time when Sora had had a lucky day… he'd beat him at everything from swordfights to races to cards. And Riku had always liked rummy before…

Yuffie was curled up in a luxurious emerald armchair with her massive book of choice, reading underneath the stairs in the library by the window. There were many gnarled white candles dotted about, in the brackets on the wall, but a big church pillar candle burned brightly in the middle of the coffee table situated next to the small, engrossed girl. When Riku stumbled upon her in her little alcove, it was almost as though her eyes were glowing, they reflected the light perfectly so Riku was sure for a moment that a warmer version of the Heartless had returned. Of course when he ventured out of the bookcase he was currently hiding behind he saw that it was in fact a girl who seemed to be around his age, although judging from her thin frame perhaps a little younger. She looked up from her book, sensing that someone was around. The girl had sharp senses too, he had noted, as she looked up like a deer caught in the headlamps, and asked carefully and quietly:

"Squall?" She sounded as if someone had stabbed her through the heart, that weak, nothing like tone of someone whose heart had been claimed by the heartless. At first he thought that this was the case, but he quickly thought better of it, seeing as she was now moving of what seemed her own accord. She had risen from her seat, and was fiddling with what seemed to be the fringe of tassels on… a scarf was it? Yes, he had thought, and just when he felt he had the courage to speak, she spoke again, this time more uncertain, he just knew what she was thinking 'I'm imagining it. This isn't real, it's just my mind playing tricks' because that's what he thought every time he could be sure he saw or heard or sensed something moving near him. Only difference was that usually with him it was one hundred per cent paranoia. "Come out from behind there… please… I'm sorry I ran away but please don't punish me like this… you know how much it hurt me when… when…" she relaxed all her muscles and fell, defeated, back on the chair. There were tears welling up in her eyes and spilling over her jet eyelashes and not stopping. Damn, he remembered thinking, it looks just like the rain which now seemed to be cascading down outside, exactly how he imagined the end of the world would look over the rising falls, sparkling water becoming dirty and impure as it gushed over the world, rinsing away all the badness, just so that it would become sludgy with parts of brick and dust as the buildings crumbled around the rain, shrinking away into nothing until only the rain lingered, still beating indefinitely. That seemed to be what had happened with this girl, for while Riku had stood puzzling over this, she had broken down, pulled her legs up to her chest and was sobbing as if she would never see daylight again.

He hung back; he was as unsure as he had ever been in his life as to what he should do, sit back and leave her to it? Turn around and pretend it hadn't happened? He was taking a step forward. And another. One more and she would be able to see him clearly.

Or should I go and comfort her? He had thought, knowing his heart had already decided.

* * *

She was looking at him as he snapped out of his reverie, his flashbacks and reminiscing, and he knew what she was thinking. She knew what he was thinking as well, as she popped another chunk of the sweet and yellow, juicy fruit into his mouth, giggling slightly at his face as the infamous 'sour wave' hit him, and his whole body shuddered.

'Never would have thought that it would end up like this', she whispered as she kissed him lightly and innocently on the lips.

* * *

Ok, I'm not sure about the last bit, I kept getting distracted and dragging on with pointless but slightly pretty imagary (not sure how to spell that...) and whatever else it was… so… eek… I hope you liked it. Should I have ended it there? Originally I had intended to put in a LOT more description of the Paopu fruit eating-ness and its taste and how Riku had always eaten it and it never tasted like that before, bla de bla, but it just didn't happen. Oh well, tell me what you think!

(Curls up and sleep for the rest of her life) How anyone can get through their GCSEs without becoming a zombie is waaaay beyond me.

Toodles!

Bracken xxx zzz…


End file.
